Digital Marketing Trends

While the core principles of marketing don’t change very often, the trends and tactics change every once in a while. Business owners and marketers have to stay on top of these trends to keep their businesses growing. 

Technology has influenced almost every business aspect in the world today — including marketing. Newspaper advertisements were the norm a couple of decades ago. But today, they are obsolete; thanks to technology. 

We expect to see changes of various magnitudes in the digital marketing industry as we head towards 2022. Business owners and marketers have to stay ready for these trends and alterations if they want to stay competitive in the future. 

This article aims to provide you with knowledge related to these tech trends. So, without any further ado, let’s dive into the first trend. 

1. AI is on the rise

While some of us still don’t accept AI as a reality and label it as something from a sci-fi movie — it’s real — it’s changing the world — and it’s here to stay. Today, all the major tech companies, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, have been constantly talking about AI. There’s no denying that AI and machine learning are the future of every business operation, including marketing. 

While AI has been affecting digital marketing for several years in the form of personalized suggestions and recommendations to the end-user, it’s destined to root even deeper into this industry. The majority of digital marketing solutions are constantly working on and releasing their automated features based on AI and ML.

2. The truth of social media platforms

According to reports, people in the UK and US have been deactivating at least one of their social media accounts. It’s mainly due to the awareness people got due to various privacy scandals by social media giants like Facebook. 

While I certainly don’t suggest social media is dying, I say marketers can focus a bit less on social media marketing in 2022, and give a thought to improving their email marketing.

3. “Content selling” is a thing

Content marketing has been popular for a long time now; however, it’s going to convert into “content selling” shortly. That means the content is going to be one of the primary ways you sell in the future — and in a new way. 

You have to develop higher-quality, more detailed content strategies and develop content that sells. Your content should be directly tied to your sales processes. 

4. Chatbots don’t sound bad anymore

Chatbots from a few years ago sounded ridiculous. Their answers to even the most generic queries weren’t reliable sometimes. However, that’s not the case anymore. 

Today, chatbots provide many benefits to businesses and marketers. Customers don’t like to wait for long hours to get a response from a human in the mail. Chatbots give them exactly what they want: speedy and reliable replies. Moreover, chatbots are so natural today that sometimes a customer can’t even tell they’re talking to a robot. 

5. Voice search is getting popular

A few years ago, voice search took only 20% of the overall volume of Google searches. But today, as voice search is built into the majority of software products, it’s more than 50% of the total search volume. 

Content marketers and businesses have to adjust their content to sound more conversational, as there’s a difference between typed searches and voice searches. Users tend to search more conversational phrases when they searching using voice, and content creators have to alter their content to meet that criterion. 

6. UX is more important than ever

Today, most of the tech giants are focusing on improving their products’ UX rather than pushing out a massive number of new features. For example, Google’s latest version of Android, i.e., Android 12 primarily focuses on a better UX. The same goes for Windows 11 by Microsoft. 

The lesson we learn from this is UX is important for the end-users today. Businesses and marketers have to build their websites, applications, and social media accounts in a way that talks UX.

7. Personalized suggestions are growing

While personalization has been on the rise for the last several years, it’s more important than ever today. Digital trends suggest that fully personalized recommendations will be the hot topic in 2022 and beyond. 

Furthermore, advertisements and other marketing material are now better aligned with the end user’s interests and wants. 

8. Transparency is more valuable

Customers today prefer brands that are transparent in their communication. Sometimes, customers would even buy something just because the advertisement was so “honest”, even if they didn’t like the product or service they just purchased. 

Marketers have to practice transparency in their strategies to stay competitive in 2022 and beyond. 

9. Social media celebs have a huge impact

Although film celebrities have been the primary way of celebrity marketing for quite some time now, consumers have trust issues with such ads. Movie celebrities have limited communication with the general public; so people instantly realize the advertisement is paid and isn’t “real”.

Social media celebs, like YouTubers, can communicate with their audience on a more personal level. When they advertise something, the audience is more likely to trust them and purchase the product/service in question. 

10. Mobile devices are the top priority

Mobile devices are now more accessible than ever. Low-end and mid-range phones are getting better by the day. Everything a consumer used to do on a computer a few years ago now is on a mobile phone or tablet. 

Your marketing strategies and material have to be optimized for mobile and built around the idea of “mobile-first”. 

Key takeaways

Technology has been changing the face of this world and every industry that sits on it — and marketing is no different. Tech has changed how we market our products and services; marketers have to stay aligned with these changes if they want to stay competitive. 

This article provides an insight into how tech has influenced the marketing strategies for 2022 and beyond.